Miscellaneous. 93 
blocks out of the Boulder-clay. In this communication I have 
repeated part of what I formerly said, but I considesed it best to 
enter fully into the subject.—Yours, &c. G. Henry Krinanan, 
GALWAY: Dec. 5, 1864. 
MISCELLANEOUS. 
4 — - 
How THE SKULL OF THE MAMMOTH WAS GOT OUT OF THE BRICK- 
EARTH AT ILFORD. By H. Woopwarp, F.G.S., F.Z.S.—In reply 
to the Rev. O. Fisher’s enquiry (see p. 44), having been present 
during the exhumation of the cranium of the Mammoth (Elephas 
primigenius) at Ilford (described and figured in the GEoLoaIcaL 
Macazine for November, p. 241), I will state the method adopted by 
Mr. W. Davies, of the British Museum, assisted by Mr. Thorn and 
others. 
We sent down a one-horse spring-van, carrying a good supply of 
the best plaster of Paris (1 ewt.), six pieces of $-inch nail-bar-iron, 
6 to 8 ft. long, a bundle of splines, a box full of hay and tow, some 
strips of old canvas, whitey-brown paper, two large earthen pans in 
which to mix the plaster, spades, trowels, a saw, iron hammers, 
spatule, &c., good stout cord and rope, deal planks, and a hand- 
barrow upon which to remove the remains, and some large wooden 
trays in which all the loose portions were to be systematically 
placed, and marked with pencil on separate papers to show the parts 
to which they belonged. 
You must imagine the skull resting half exposed in compact 
brickearth, requiring a spade or trowel to remove it, but the fossil 
itself as friable as decayed wood or tinder, the ivory of the tusk 
being equally soft and shattered. 
The first operation was to remove as much of the soil as could be 
done with safety; the whole tusk was then covered with sheets of 
whitey-brown paper; a coating of well-mixed plaster of Paris was 
placed over the paper covering the tusk, and allowed to settle down 
upon each side in the grooves which had been scraped in the brick- 
earth, forming a coat, of this shape , over the entire length of the 
tusk. When the plaster had set, two bars of the iron (above men- 
tioned), which had been bent to the proper curve, were placed upon 
the hard plaster, and fixed to it with another coating of fresh-mixed 
plaster of Paris. 
When these coats had properly set, the base of the tusk (which 
had been carefully cleared and coated all round with plaster) was 
sawn through a few inches below the socket, the tusk was burrowed 
under at intervals with the trowel, and hand-holes thus made beneath 
it, through which were thrust strips of canvas and pads of tow or 
hay, until the whole was swathed with bandages of canvas, hay, and 
cord, like a mummy. When thus secured, six men turned it gently 
over from its matrix and placed it upon a long plank prepared for it 
(the curved part being supported and fixed with packing), and so 
